Gaming machines provide an opportunity for a user to play a variety of popular games on the machines, such as slot-type games, video adaptations of standard card games such as poker and blackjack, and many other types of games. Modern gaming machines are able to monitor gaming and other actions that occur within the machine, and forward that information over a computer network to a central system host or master controller.
An example modern gaming machine 10 is shown in FIG. 1. The gaming machine 10 includes a wager input 20 that accepts bills, tickets or vouchers at a bill slot 22, and accepts coins or tokens at a coin slot 24. The user of the machine 10 simply inserts an amount of money that he or she is willing to wager into the wager input 20, prior to playing the game on the machine 10.
A set of game electronics 15 counts the money input into the machine 10, and stores values for this and other data items in a set of internal game meters 17. The game meters 17 store information such as the amount of money wagered on the game, number of coins in, coins out, etc. In newer machines 10, an amount of credit available to the player for money inserted but not yet wagered is calculated from the stored information and displayed on a credit meter 19 viewable by the game player.
If the user wins a wager, credits are added to those already displayed on the credit meter 19. When a player decides to “cash in” the credits, or when a player wins on a machine 10 that lacks a credit meter 19, the user is paid by one of two methods. First, coins or bills could be deposited directly into a payout bin 30 by the machine 10. The coins are released from a hopper 32, which empties into the bin 30. Bills could be similarly deposited. Alternately, the user could be paid through a procedure called a “handpay”.
Handpay procedures are those where a floor attendant or other casino employee pays the player directly. Generally, there are three scenarios when handpays are used: when the player wins a “jackpot”, which is a single win over a threshold amount; when a player cashes out a number of credits above a cashout threshold amount, or when the hopper 32 of the machine 10 does not contain enough money to pay the player. When any of these situations occur, the machine 10 automatically locks up and an attendant is dispatched to the machine. The attendant then verifies the amount to be paid, pays the player, and unlocks the machine.
The wager input 20 and hopper 32 are in communication with, report to, and are controlled by the game electronics 15. The game electronics 15 is in turn coupled to a communication module, such as a bonus engine 14. The bonus engine 14 is connected to a data connector cable 12, which in turn is coupled to a game network. The bonus engine 14 interfaces with data collectors and information sensors that are located throughout the machine 10 through the game electronics 15, and sends the collected information to the data connector cable 12 for further delivery to a central system on the game network (not shown).
There are some existing, limited, safeguard mechanisms used in modern gaming devices to protect against game machines malfunctioning and paying out money in error, or being deliberately cheated to pay out unearned money. Generally these existing safeguards rely on the fact that there are only two ways money can be paid out from a gaming machine 10, i.e., via the hopper 32 or via the handpay. Current safeguard systems typically monitor the number of times the hopper 32 is refilled in a set time period. If the number of times the hopper 32 is refilled within this period exceeds a pre-set maximum, then the safeguard system prints a report or otherwise generates a warning to notify a floor manager or other casino personnel that the gaming machine 10 should be investigated. In current safeguard systems, handpays are usually ignored and not considered at the time they are paid, although they may be considered at a later time, e.g., at the end of day processing. Thus, a malfunctioning device or a device being cheated may not be recognized as such for some time.
These present safeguard systems are also ineffective for a number of other reasons. Even with modern gaming devices there are cheats and failure modes that can cause the device to pay more money than it is supposed to pay. For example, coin or paper detection mechanisms in the wager input 20 can fail, or can be purposefully cheated such that inserting one coin or bill results in multiple coin or bill credits to the device 10. Coin detection mechanisms in the coin hopper 32 can fail so that multiple coins come out when only one coin is signaled to the game electronics. The result is overpayment to the user. These types of problems are difficult to detect with present methods.
Another problem exists in that newer gaming devices are migrating toward cashless operation. Rather than accept and pay out wagers in bills, coins, or tokens, new machines are experimenting with accepting and paying wagers in tickets, cards, or other vouchers, or even using forms of electronic methods for payment and credit. Therefore, safeguard mechanisms that simply monitor hopper fills are not sufficient for these devices. In fact, future gaming devices may not even include a hopper for wager payout.
Embodiments of the invention address these and other deficiencies in the prior art.